New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought reply from Yati Narsinghanand, a priest at Ghaziabad’s Dasna Devi temple, on a contempt plea against him for allegedly making derogatory remarks against the apex court last year.
Senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan informed the bench comprising Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh that they have received the consent of the then Attorney General K K Venugopal for the contempt plea against Yati Narsinghanand.
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In January 2022, Venugopal had granted his consent on a request made by Shachi Nelli for initiation of contempt proceedings against the priest. In October last year, the top court had asked the petitioner to bring on record transcription of contents of the video carrying, where Narsinghanand made the statement against the apex court.
Today, after hearing submissions in the matter, the Supreme Court issued notice to the priest and directed him to file his reply. In the plea, Nelli had cited an alleged contemptuous statement made by Narsinghanand in an interview given to a YouTube channel. The interview had gone viral on social media in January 2022 and the statements were made in the interview conducted in context of the Haridwar hate speech case, which is pending in the apex court.
As per section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, Attorney General’s consent is required before the Supreme Court hears a criminal contempt petition filed by a private individual.
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